The Price
by Zannen
Summary: The day we decide to become shinobi is the day our lives are forfeit. Sakura knew this as fact. It's only when she finally breaks under the pressure does she realize it as truth. Dark fic. Spoilers included within...beware.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. Beware…there are some spoilers for those who haven't seen past Ep. 50 of the Shipuuden arc or read any of the manga.

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**The Price**

Sakura pulled her rain cloak closer to her body as she stared dumbly at the Memorial Stones in front of her.

It seemed like lifetimes ago when she'd stood there as a fresh-faced genin while her crazy new sensei talked about those warriors immortalized on the blue marble. The heroes and heroines whose names littered the monument died in honor and in battle.

But most importantly, they died for their country.

_You give up your life, _an insidious voice murmured in her head. _The moment you decide to become a shinobi…your life is forfeit._

"We didn't know what we were getting into," she whispered brokenly. Her hand tightened around the scroll she held. Icy fingers encased in worn leather dug into the wet parchment in anger and sorrow.

Long years passed after her introduction into the shinobi ranks. Years filled with fighting, betrayal, and heartache.

So much heartache…too much for one as young as she.

The war with Akatsuki was all but over. But at what price?

The 19-year-old woman glared at the cold blue marble and remembered.

_One stone wasn't enough, was it? _The voice whispered again. _It never would be—_could_ be—enough for what we wrought; what we created together._

For years they thought they had the upper hand. Konoha was too strong, too skilled, to fall at the hands of a band of criminals. But with such strength came complacency, pride, and ignorance to the world around them.

Sarutobi Asuma was the first to truly fall. But he was by no means the last.

They had underestimated. And paid heavily for it.

Jiraiya-sama, Akimichi Chouza—they and countless others lay dead at the hands of their enemy. Akatsuki had struck hard and fast.

And then came the cruelest blows of all.

Shaking hands reached out to trace the names of those dearest to her heart. A scream of frustration and grief threatened to escape her throat, but Sakura refused its freedom. To give voice to her pain would make it all the more real. To acknowledge in sound what she felt in her heart was something she was not yet prepared to do.

To know that she would never again hear impossible excuses for her former sensei's tardiness…

Never again know the satisfying sting of her palm as it connected with a hard head of blonde hair…

Never again watch as dead black eyes lit up with something close to emotion as she tried to share yet another lame "knock-knock" joke…

Never again taste the bitter excitement that swelled in her chest as she held the man she'd grown to love beyond the bounds of reason…

They were gone.

_Not gone, _the voice whispered seductively. _They're still here…they can be here again._

Sakura shivered again, but not due to rain or sorrow. Excitement skittered down her spine as she looked down at the scroll in her hand.

She remembered.

Of course she did—she couldn't forget her first kill that easily.

It was like fighting an angel. His face was beautiful. His voice hypnotic. And his hands…

They were nothing less than a work of art.

_Art…_the sensuous voice chuckled in her broken heart. _We will create it together. You know what to do._

"Yes," Sakura laughed. "I know what to do."

It had taken her months to pull everything together. All of the hours of research, all of the strings pulled and favors called in, summed together to form the gift of knowledge in her trembling fingers. She had everything ready. She knew the jutsu. She had the chemicals.

Now she just needed her friends.

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**A/N:**

I don't know if I'll continue this. I do have more written, but it seems fitting to leave things as they are. The story's supposed to be part of an author exchange, but I think I'll write something a bit...happier for that. Review and tell me if I should post the rest of what I have written for this story.

Ja ne!

~Zannen


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. Beware…there are some spoilers for those who haven't seen past Ep. 50 of the Shipuuden arc or read any of the manga.

**Chapter 2**

Resolutely, she turned on her heel and began to leave the clearing. Before she could get far, however, three shadows leapt from the trees and into her path.

"Give us the scroll, Sakura," a low voice commanded.

The pink haired woman felt another bubble of sound gather in her throat and this time released the crazed laugh. Her heart filled with glee at the fearful looks on her comrades' faces. Her mind, already broken from the tremendous pressure of her loss, stayed clear and focused.

"You can't stop me," she grinned, placing the precious scroll in her cloak. "I'm a fuckin' Sannin now. D'you think I can be stopped by something as pitiful as you three?"

"Tsunade-sama didn't give you that title so that you could follow in the footsteps of her bastard teammate!" Kiba yelled out.

Sakura pouted at the comparison. "I'm not following in Orochimaru's footsteps," she shot back. "I'm doing something completely different."

"How is this different, Sakura-san?" Hinata asked. Pain flowed in her voice, but strength and anger prevented her usual stutter.

"I would think that you'd want this more than anyone," Sakura sighed, ignoring the question. "He'd be back, Hinata…don't you want him back?"

"It wouldn't be him!" Hinata screamed. "No matter what you did, it wouldn't be him!!"

Something in the white-eyed woman's voice struck a chord in Sakura's crazed mind. "Chiyo-baa-sama," Sakura whispered. Before it was violently pushed back, a memory of an old woman came to her.

_They know nothing,_ the voice growled softly. _This is more than what they think. _

_Of course it's more than what they think, _Sakura argued. _But it is also so much less…_

_They know __**nothing,**_ the voice insisted. Sakura grabbed the side of her head in confusion and glared at Team Kurenai. They were whole—always had been. They were together—always would be. And they knew nothing about her pain.

"You know nothing," she repeated. The fury of her grief blinded her to the looks of worry on the faces of those before her. She threw her hand out to the side and sent several chakra strings into the trees to her left—in her blind spot. Shouts rang out as four bodies slammed heavily into the forest floor.

"Sakura," Ino panted as the chakra strings tightened around her body. "You don't want to do this."

"Don't be stupid," Shikamaru grimaced. "You're being selfish."

Sakura's thoughts whirled at the possibilities before her. Shika's mind for strategies outclassed her own, Chouji's strength could match her on an even keel, and Shino could drain her chakra in a heartbeat. Those three held the biggest threat to her. If she wanted to succeed, she'd have to take them out fast.

"Don't talk to me about selfishness, Nara. I don't need a lecture from _you,_" Sakura sneered and lovingly tightened the chakra around him. When long streaks of red blood began appearing on his skin and his clothes began to rip under the pressure, a dark bloom of pleasure rose up in her chest.

The sight of those welts and the smell of the blood mixing with the rain intoxicated her.

It was beautiful.

_But they'll heal…_the voice taunted. _And where will the beauty be in that?_

_No, _Sakura smirked and allowed a bit of tainted healing chakra into her hold. _They'll scar now. And they'll be beautiful forever._

"Stop it!" Chouji cried out.

Sakura shifted her focus just long enough for the Akimichi to bellow in pain as she treated him to the same jutsu as his friend.

"Your body is a Wonderland," Sakura sang and giggled as she continued to scar the two boys at her mercy with her chakra.

"Shino!" Kiba howled. "NOW!"

A smirk appeared on Sakura's face moments before Shino could even release his jutsu. As the swarm of Kikai bugs came toward her, she held out her free arm and released her latest weapon.


End file.
